


Tail End

by Atlanova



Category: Holby City
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Goodbyes, Implied Relationships, Missing Scene, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29210505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atlanova/pseuds/Atlanova
Summary: "I looked down another barrel of a gun today, Fletch.""I know y'did, darlin'."
Relationships: Adrian "Fletch" Fletcher/Jac Naylor
Kudos: 11





	Tail End

**Author's Note:**

> Heya everyone. I just managed to catch up on the latest ep and oooowft the feeeels. Although, I'm slightly irked that they didn't give Jac & Fletch a proper goodbye scene. Don't get me wrong - it was lovely, but it lasted for like 30 seconds. I know they're on a time limit because the episode can only run for so long, but c'mon. It's Jac and Fletch were on about here. So this is basically a rewrite of that scene, and any dialogue used in the beginning from the ep belongs to the BBC
> 
> It's currently almost 3am (yes I haven't slept yet) so the fic might have a few minor inconsistencies. I'll look over it in the morning if I can
> 
> Hope you all enjoy this, for any Flac shippers still out there somewhere! 
> 
> Stay safe guys <3

_______________

"This place can't do without ya."

"Yes, it can."

"I can't."

_____________

"Come on, you dewy-eyed soppy idiot."

Fletch lets out a small snort of laughter as he turns to follow Jac. "Where are we goin'?"

"The taxi service said it was going to be late. About twenty minutes."

"So ... you're hoping I can give you a lift instead? I'd be happy to oblige - it's the least I can do for ya, after all."

Jac smiles softly beneath the exhaustion. "You don't owe me anything, Fletch."

They share a glance - a tenderness filled with tiredness. They continue to walk along the road, as small sleet droplets cascade from the sky.

"I just can't believe it, that you'd surpass a journey in _that_ beast of a motor!" Fletch suddenly exclaims, startling Jac out of a wandering muse. 

She sighs and squints into the darkness, but she doesn't even need to look. She knows what Fletch's car looks like. Well, everyone at the hospital probably does; its eye-watering scarlet red paint sticks out like a sore thumb, not to mention its generous size to comply with driving his four boisterous kids everwhere. Jac has to stop herself from laughing out loud, because of course the very gregarious and outgoing Adrian Fletcher would be so fond of such a ridiculous car. 

"S' come on then, where are we actually going?"

Jac shrugs and meets his gaze. "I ended up agreeing to wait for the taxi to get here. But I thought I'd take one last walk outside, because there's no way I was going to stand idle on the ground floor for twenty minutes."

Fletch shoves his hands into his trouser pockets and chuckles lowly, briefly making a low humm in his throat. "Yeah, 'cause everyone in this bleedin' place loves you. They'd all either try and stop ya from leaving, or be givin' ya some very cloying speech about how great you are."

Jac humms and raises an agreeing eyebrow. "Which you would _never_ do, of course."

"Oi, just a minute! You haven't given me the chance yet."

Jac rolls her eyes. "Oh, _ha-ha_."

Fletch smiles softly and glances at her as they walk. He sees the glow of street lamps illuminate her hair that flows freely down the back of her coat. It's darker than it usually is, Fletch notes, even in the light; flexing bronze tints here and there. But more importantly, he sees the exhaustion. So many times he has seen it on her he had lost count. The shooting. The days she lay in the hospital bed. Everything beyond that when some things became too much. 

"Jac?" he asks, and she looks up at him thoughtfully in reply. "What's making you go?"

She seems unfazed at this, as her focus drifts back to the road ahead. She's had to explain to Max, to Nicky, to Kian. Really, Fletch is the one she would rather explain to. After all, she knows that he would not persuade her to stay or make it all about him, as the others had done. He trusts her to figure it out herself. 

She looks at him. And she smiles. She's happy. She feels free.

"I'm tired of it, Fletch," she tells him gently, and pauses to look down. The side parting of her hair falls with her but she carelessly tucks it behind her ear. "The losing battle. The one I've always seemed to lose. You know what it's been like."

Fletch sighs through his nose as they turn a corner. The quiet night and Jac's content footsteps give him the peace of mind to properly mull over what she said.

He knows of the hardships in Jac's life. Well, from when he'd met her, anyway. She'd had to deal with reuniting with a half-sister who had passed away before her eyes, bleeding out on the operating table at the fate of trying to get to know Jac better. She'd broke down in his arms and he will always remember the way she had shaken, the way she had howled. But he recalls the way she had built herself back up again, completely by herself, with only the slight gentle support he always offered.

He remembers the panic that had surged in his veins during the first shooting. She hadn't answered her phone and Darwin had been on lockdown. He wasn't allowed inside and then he was told that she had been bled another victim of Frederik. He remembers standing at the end of her bed and trying to process, through a watery gaze, the tubes and wires plugged into her. 

He remembers her breakdown. They'd parted ways by that point but he had held her all the same, her shaking and screaming as they both collapsed to the ground. He was her lifeline and she was his. 

"You've been through a lot, Jac," he says. "Most of it in this hospital."

"That's what I mean," she tells him, and she smiles a little but then blinks slowly. "I looked down another barrel of a gun today, Fletch."

Her voice was careful. Thoughtful. Unusually quiet.

Fletch glances at her, the ever-present concern deepening the dusty greys of his eyes. "I know y'did, darlin'."

Jac considers this. She considers his voice, his presence, the affectionate name that rolled off his tongue. She doesn't mind; affectionate was all it was. He wouldn't overstep the boundary - would never make her admit to anything she would rather not admit to. It would be too painful, all over again. Besides, that's in the past, now. 

"It felt peculiar,'' she tells him. "It felt ... familiar. Well, of course it did. But ... do you know what I thought, as I stood there, ready to be shot again?"

Fletch cannot ignore the aching flip his stomach assaults him with at her words. At the possibility he was so relieved had disintegrated with the news that Darwin was safe again. But he makes himself focus on her question and he tries to think of an answer. 

"Uh ... Emma. I'm guessing you thought of Emma. In fact, I know you did."

Jac glances at him. "How did you know?" 

He gives her a sad smile. "'Cause she was your first thought last time. You told me so when the morphine was knockin' you out one night."

Jac nudges him gently, elbowing his waist. "Trust you to listen so adorningly, Fletch. That was years ago."

Fletch looks at her, a frown knitted on his brows. He had wondered if she was angry at his insistence to care, or even perhaps perturbed that he had guessed so quickly. But as he notices the almost teary look to Jac's eyes and the fond smile that twitches her jaw, he realizes she is just extremely grateful.

"I'm also a parent, Jac, as y'know. Y' kids are the first things you think about in times like that. I know I did, when I was stabbed," he admits. 

Jac nods and sighs. Of course. He knows what it is to sacrifice what matters for the wellbeing of his children. It's something Kian would never have understood. 

"Y' matter to me, Jac. Always 'ave. And I don't want you to ever forget that." 

Jac stops walking and blinks at him. She tilts her head to the side and smiles a little. She'd have told him to stop being sentimental, but in no less than ten minutes she is to leave this place for good. She will miss Fletch and she needs him to know how much he has grounded her, throughout the years.

"You matter to me, Fletch. More than anyone in years," she whispers. "You're a good man. Hard to come by these days." 

Fletch allows himself to sigh sadly as he regards the woman before him. The one he had held, whose limp hand he had grasped, whose voice he had yearned to hear waking from yet another coma. The one he had adored and loved and had become so infuriated by sometimes. 

Jac doesn't ignore the sharp pang she feels. It punctures her heart first, and then her head, and then her stomach. So, this is what missing someone must feel like. Fuck, she hadn't even said goodbye to him yet. 

"Oh, for god'sake, Fletcher," she sighs, before walking forwards and pulling him into a hug. She hears him chuckle and mutter about something being long due, but she doesn't pay attention. All she wants is to melt into his embrace for the time being. To savour perhaps the only person she will miss. Yes, there's Sacha, but his hugs are admittedly suffocating compared to Fletch's.

"Thank you," she whispers, and resides to resting her chin on his shoulder. Her eyelids blink slowly as she watches the snow fall to the ground. 

Fletch inhales and lets her go, smiling gently. "I'm glad you're alright, Jac. Seriously."

"I wasn't the one who was shot this time."

"Yeah, a'know. But when I 'eard about the lockdown on Darwin, it-"

"Alarm bells," she finishes for him, motioning that they continue their walk to the taxi bay. "I know."

Their slow footsteps grind to a halt and crunch in the snow. They shiver and, for a moment, stand in silence. Every single car Fletch hears, he thinks is the taxi. He knows why she is doing this, and by no means will he stop her from going. But his heart cannot help but swell at the thought of her leaving. She is often the first person he sees at the start of shift and the last at night. For so many years and, oh, how far they had come.

They'd been through so much, so much trauma, and it lingers between them, palpable in the air and ever-knowing in their minds. 

"You'll do fine without me, Fletch," Jac suddenly says, a sad longing to her tone. A part of her is niggling to say behind just a little longer - for old time's sake, maybe. 

Fletch winces dramatically and shakes his head. "Hmm. Dunno about that. It's gonna take some getting used to."

Jac manages a silent laugh as a taxi nears them. "That's as may be, but you can't mope for too long, Adrian. You need to keep moving forward. And take care of yourself."

He mock-salutes her and smiles, watching the way she rolls her eyes. "Promise I will, Jac." 

"Besides," she says, beginning to walk to the taxi, "don't forget that we live in the twenty-second century, Fletch. There _are_ such things as phones, you know." 

He makes a dramatic gasp as he ambles with her to the car. 'Awh. I'm touched. You usually just decline anyone who ain't Emma's childminder or Max."

"Yes, well, as of now, you're an exception, you idiot."

"Alright, you. Don't overdo it. You'll make me cry," Fletch mumbles sarcastically before chuckling and placing a kiss to the side of her head. A silent farewell worth a thousand words, if there ever was one. 

He watches her clamber into the taxi, and notices how tired she looks as she relaxes her shoulders against the cool leather of the seat. He gives her a soft wink, to which she returns with a smile telling of an equal sentiment. 

Fletch, although he can't quite muster the strength, stands in the cold as he watches the taxi descend down the road. Nothing will feel the same without her, but he is sympathetic to her plight.

There's a vibrate in his pocket. He brings out his phone and the notification displayed on the lockscreen forces a chuckle from him and soothes the ache.

_Jac Naylor  
21:34 --> Stop standing outside in the cold watching after me. You're not in a film, Fletcher. Get back inside and do your job._

His laugh turns into a reminiscent smile as he types out a response.

_21:35 -- > It's been a few minutes, Jac. It's lovely to hear from you after such a long time though x_

_Jac Naylor  
21:37--> Shut up, Adrian. It's boring in this taxi and you're the only one entertaining enough to talk to_

Fletch heads back to the hospital with the remnants of a fond grin on his face. 

He'll take that as a compliment, thank you very much.


End file.
